Beautiful: Worship and Bethel (Hosting weekend # 2)

My husband and I hosted the Bethel students again this past weekend. They were suppose to come up last month, but due to a predicted storm during their allocated weekend, they were forced to cancel their trip for the month. This month, they made it. We hosted just 2 girls this time, as the team coming here was a lot smaller than in the past. They had their own car, which was really cool. One of the girls was a worship leader at her church, and the other girl had a beautiful voice too.


So before they left Saturday morning, we worshipped. Acoustically. In our home.


And. It. Was. Beautiful.


God's been teaching me about worship lately it seems. And it started with my sister Alishia talking about this book she read and loved. I believe it's "Heaven's Symphony"? Or something like that, but it talks about how the Angels in heaven and God's creation of the landscape and animals are already worshipping the Creator and have been since they were created. When we sing, dance, or do anything we deem "worship" to Him, we are simply joining in in the already existing worship. We are joining thousands of musical notes already being sung to the Lord.


How. Beautiful. Is. That?


2 weeks ago at church, my husband and I got there a little late, so we were ushered to a seat by the helpful volunteers. During one of the songs, my hubby left the aisle and walked all the way to the front, he came back and said "Let's go" and led me to the front of the place. And we sat in front. It was like a concert for God. Last week, they cancelled church due to the snow that was pretty treacherous. So last night we went. And sat in front again. God moved in my heart so strongly I wanted to dance with my husband in the front, as there's some space between the front row and the stage, but I don't know if that church is open to people "going crazy for God" like that. So I held back and just kept the beat in my feet during the songs.


But. Worship. Was. Beautiful.


God is an amazing God. If you asked me in high school where I'd be in the last month of my being 27 years old, I would have probably said single, mingling, being a famous writer in New York. If you had told me I'd be married living in the country, loving on God so passionately, I would definitely have called you bonkers.


But. God. Is. Beautiful.


His ways are good and beautiful, and I can't imagine living any other way than this. I'm excited for all He's teaching me and the ways He's growing me. I'm happy to be right where He has me in all aspects of my life.


I wouldn't want it any other way.


Isn't. That. Beautiful?


Amen and Amen

We all wanna be a little ‘Wild and Free’

Towards the end of last year, Gretchen, from Life Lived Beautifully, posted all the books she had read last year, the books she wanted to read this year, and the book lists of her LLB team that I think were ‘To Read’ this year. I immediately copied them down to my GoodReads account and told myself, this would be the year that I read more (previously, I haven’t made a lot of time to read books, I preferred the mind numbing Netflix), that I further enrich my walk with God, to read books to help me understand Him and understand the Bible better.

I also thought it would be a great idea, if I involved some good friends of mine who also love to read, and we could go through some of these books together. And the whole thing flopped. I knew some people were going to be out of town, but then when the time came to actually meet up, there were “Oh this came up” “Oh life got busy”. So I ended up just going to dinner with one of the book club crew people, my sister-in-law. My enthusiasm was either more than theirs, or it wasn’t quite the right timing. I’ve been wrestling with this dilemma for a bit now.

As I compose this, God’s put it on my heart:

It’s not the right timing my beloved daughter. I want to take you through some things personally, that would be better rendered if you read the books by yourself. You may share what you learn should I lead you to do so. But I have other plans for your leadership skills. Trust me.

Well. There I go. Thanks God J

Our first book, or my first book that I was tackling was Wild and Free, by Jess Connolly and Hayley Morgan. I definitely had mixed feelings about this book

I read 2 chapters and thought, this book is amazing. I read a third chapter and was beat down, “What is this? Why am I reading it?”, and that’s about the point I had dinner with my sister-in-law. After, I persevered, and then I got SO MUCH out of the rest of the book. SO MUCH that God had for me in that book.

A brief synopsis: We are called to live wild and free as daughters of the King. Wild does not mean haphazard carelessness. Free does not mean to do whatever we please. This book goes through small testimonials of the authors to help paint a picture of this Wild and Free lifestyle we are called to live.

Finishing it was something I’m really glad I did. This will be a book I hold onto, and re-read and lend out to friends who need it. I highly recommend this book, especially if you are feeling a little lackluster and that your fire has dimmed.


What are your reading goals this year? What are you reading through right now? I'd love to read along with you, or read what you're reading next. Comment down below and let me know.


Amen and Amen.

Disclaimer: Links are provided for simple convenience. I have no ties to Amazon, I am not getting paid to promote anything mentioned or any links provided. Amazon is not the only retailer for items, just a site I happen to like and use.

I can see clearly now, the veil is lifted

 So this week, I couldn’t think of anything to write about for yesterday. I was struggling to think, “What is worth the time to compose a post that people would enjoy reading?”

 

And then I got my windshield replaced yesterday. Then, inspiration hit.

 

A few years ago, I was driving in the slow lane after merging from one freeway to another. I wanted to make my way to the fast lane. I moved to the middle lane behind this big semi truck. I checked my mirror, checked my blind spot, and then 2 things happened at the exact same time. The first, some Speedy Gonzales came flying up in the fast lane, blocking me in the middle lane. More slow cars had filled in the slow lane. The second, a huge gust of head wind blew, informing me that the construction style semi truck in front of me, was a gravel truck, without a cover over the gravel. My windshield got splattered with gravel. Ok, so maybe this was more than a few years ago, I think it was a year or 2 after I got my car, which was 2009, so perhaps since 2011 I’ve been driving around with a windshield missing minute chips.

 

The crack. You can see the curved part and then where it begins to straighten out across the windshield.

So after this crack appeared, I’m assuming one of those gravel chips evolved into the nearly halfway across the windshield mark, I was ecstatic to get a new windshield. I was thrilled to be able to start fresh. Last night I picked up my car and got in and looked out at a fresh windshield for the first time in years.

This was taken this morning. No crack. No chips. No dent. Just frost.

 

I didn’t realize how distorted my windshield was. I didn’t realize how “fuzzy” I had been seeing. For those of you who wear glasses, you know that moment where you clean your glasses after looking through dirty ones and all of a sudden everything is bright and clear as day? For those of you who don’t, you know when your phone camera gets dirty and you realize in your camera preview things are fuzzy, then you wipe it clean and all of a sudden everything is bright and crisp?

 

It’s also like, that moment when your life is chaotic, messy, perhaps dangerous and life threatening. It’s that moment when you realize that you’re spinning and lost and dizzy and you don’t know which way is up. It’s that really dark scary moment where you’re ready to give up and let go. And. Then. God. Then God comes into the picture. Then He saves you. Then He shows you what a good life looks like, what true unconditional no strings attached love is. Then He shows you that all He wants is you to love Him and follow Him. Then He tells you that you need to do NOTHING but believe.

 

It’s THAT moment, when you feel free. It’s THAT moment, when you can finally see clearly. When all of a sudden, your vision is bright, clear, crisp, focused.

 

I was reminded of that yesterday. I was reminded that we have THAT moment, every morning when we wake up, a chance to start fresh with God.

 

Oh yesterday was such a good day.

 

Amen and Amen.

Just Breathe

Day 2 of 40. Day 2 of going through the Psalms. Day 2 of spiritual attack. Day 2 of clinging close to my Heavenly Father. Day 2 of an expectant heart excited to see how God is going to be God and move greatly in this study.

 

I’m spending 40 days in the Psalms, thanks to Life Lived Beautifully (LLB). (That’s a link, go check out their blog post about the study!) I’ve done a few studies now. The first 4ish or so I did were through She Reads Truth (SRT). They were pretty good, the first few were Philippians and Colossians and they were pretty basic. The Lent study was a revamped format and the book is beautiful! Though I wasn’t able to finish it, so I can’t speak to how much I learned (or didn’t) from it. The most recent study I did was through Proverbs31 ministries: Finding I Am (FIA), where it went through the book of John and the 7 “I am…” statements Jesus made about himself. This study was pretty good, and I liked it. A common factor between both of these ministries was they allowed the weekend as a “catch up” time for you to do what you can.

 

So now, going through a 3^rd ministry for a study, Oh I’m so excited to learn and grow.

 

The previous studies had verse cards and I didn’t know what to do with them. The SRT ones never got used. The FIA  ones I hole punched and put them in my planner, but I never referenced them. Then, Gretchen Saffles of LLB in one of her instagram stories had a great idea for using them and seeing them on the daily. She hung them by the kitchen sink, so as she did dishes she would see them. That is so brilliant. So I did that. My window that I hung them off of isn’t super big, so I only put 5 of the 10 cards up.

 

 

Halfway through the study, I will switch them out for the other half. My husband really likes the idea too. He says its great and decorative and it’s furthering our House to Home endeavor.


Verdict so far? This first week is a slow week, slowly getting into the study, taking the study book a page at a time. Yesterday and Today are Heart Checks. And I really like that. It's really having me focus (and anyone else doing the study) on where I am and where I need to be. Today's was all about moving forward on your knees: aka Humility. Oh this is so good for my soul. I'm loving this already.

So, here's their post about Lent and resources and awesomeness. Will you join me for a Lent study? Do you want to Breathe and pray through the Psalms? Comment down below what you'll be doing for the 40 days of Lent, I'd love to hear about it and be on my knees praying for you.

Amen & Amen.